Jaguar Skills: I really get to flex my s**t at festivals

There are only a few DJs in the world that can genuinely be considered as turntablist wizards - DJ Yoda, A-Trak, DJ Qbert and DJ Shadow are some of the more established pioneers of the art. But it is relative new comer Jaguar Skills that has been grabbing all the attention as of late.

His initial Ministry of Sound mix ‘Jaguar Skills And His Amazing Friends’ skillfully combined just about every tempo and genre into one distinct and unforgettable mix that will go down in history as one of the benchmarks of turntablism. With a huge number of festivals, new productions, and regular radio slots lined up, we seized upon the chance to chat to Jaguar Skills days before the release of his hotly anticipated second installment for Ministry of Sound.

Listen: Jaguar Skills Hot Minute Mix for Radio One

What early influences played a part in getting you into what you do now? Are you from a fairly musical background?

Yes, my Dad was a DJ and I grew up with thousands of records around the house. It was crazy man. My Mum was an actor and my Dad was DJ - go figure.

How do you go about selecting tunes for your sets? Is it all pre planned or is there room for some ‘off the cuff’ stuff as well?

Well this is how I organise it. I have a load of routines like a Hip-Hop DJ would have. So depending on where and what time I play this dictates how many routines I perform and which one's I perform and how many freestyles I do.

Like if I were to play a 10,000 person tent and I'm headlining the stage, then I might do quite a lot of flashy routines - because I figure that's the time to perform like that. But if I'm playing an underground club at 2am then I'm going to pretty much freestyle the whole thing. Interestingly though I come up with my routines when I freestyle in clubs. That's where all the experimentation comes from; the late night clubs.

How did your slot on Radio One come about?

Zane Lowe saw me DJing and hooked me up with the producer Phil Stocker at Radio One. Phil was producing Trevor Nelson's show at the time and they wanted a slot on Saturday night that would rival Annie Mac's 5 Min mix thing the night before.

I think they had bunch of DJs before me do the slot but for one reason or another I ended up being full-time on that mission. Also at the same time, a little bit before MistaJam started playing a lot of my re-edits and stuff, he then played a whole one hour Hip-Hop mix of mine on air, on 1xtra. This was all around 2006-2007 and I'm still doing it now!

We notice you’re playing at Beat-Herder, Electric Daisy Carnival and Global Gathering. What attracted you to these festivals and what can we expect from you there?

Festivals, I fucking love them - the more the merrier. I really get to flex my shit at festivals. And now with my stage set up it's perfect. The music I play is all electronic but at varied tempos. It's like a madhouse zoo when I perform now at festivals, it's just great.

How did you end up recording a mix for Ministry of Sound?

I did an album on Toolroom Records which was a great experience. That mission led me to do an album with Ministry Of Sound, which has been equally great fun. My ideas are sometimes pretty bizarre and Ministry accommodates these ideas brilliantly as they've let me do exactly what I want.

Listen: Jaguar Skills And His Amazing Friends Mix Vol. 02 (Sample)

How does this mix differ from Jaguar Skills and Friends Vol. 1? What direction would you say you have taken with Vol. 2?

Vol 1 was very hardcore and in your face. I was flipping a lot of Bass music in it. It was quite dark in places. VOL 2 - is more bright. It's to blast out in the Sun. It's like a mixture of Vol 1 and my Toolroom Knights album. There's a lot more House on this project. But there's some rock on it too. Like some heavy shit. And some real hardcore D&B on there also. I'm really proud of it. There's also a tonne more original production from me on there too.

How would you describe, in a few words, a Jaguar Skills set?

A hurricane.

Are there any producers you’ve been really impressed with recently?

I'm actually in the process of re-discovering music that I haven't heard in years. And I’ve been really realising that music goes in cycles and trends come and go very quickly.

Trap and Deep House music seem to be the new kids on the block right now, so it's really interesting to see where these styles came from… since they're both drawing on stuff that's pretty retro. For example Trap, is pretty much 808 Bass music. I've been listening to some 2 Live Crew stuff from the 80's - that's Trap! There's this old Inner City album I'm listening too from the 80's - that's Deep House! So it's the old music that I'm listening to which is impressing me at this very second….

On that note, top 5 tracks at the moment?

2 Live Crew - C'mon Baby
Inner City - Ain't Nobody Better
LL Cool J - Goin Back To Cali
Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray
Whoodini - One Love

First record you bought?

Run DMC - Tougher Than Leather – and I bought it on cassette

If you weren’t a DJ, what do you think you’d be?

An assassin.

What does the future hold for Jaguar Skills?

Funk, Fun and Sun...

Jaguar Skills And His Amazing Friends Vol 2 is available from July 1st.

Check out Jaguar Skills upcoming gigs here...

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